US-based environmental credit platform Regen Network Development has reported the sale of over 92,000 biodiversity credits worth a total of $129,000, listed on its marketplace and generated by three separate developers.

Credit sales numbers to date include 1,272 Terrasos biodiversity units worth $32,000, 15,000 ERA Brazil units worth $30,000, and around 76,000 biocultural jaguar credits generated by Ecuador-based Fundacion Pachamama and Indigenous Peoples from the local Sharamentsa community, worth $67,000.

Prices vary significantly between projects, with Terrasos units being sold at around $25 each, ERA’s units pre-sold at $2, and jaguar credits pre-sold at $0.88. According to Regen’s website, ERA units will be issued in December while Pachamama expects to deliver its units in Jan. 2025.

Regen said the sales prove early demand signals for biodiversity credits, with buyers including Switzerland-based Solana Foundation for Terrasos’ units, US-based spirits producer Altos Planos Collective for the jaguar credits, philanthropic contributors, and individual buyers.

“This early demand for biodiversity credits is already underwriting important ecological repair from the Amazon headwaters to rainforests of Colombia,” Gregory Landua, CEO at Regen Network, said in a statement.

Landua told Carbon Pulse in April that the company aims to have at least 20 nature-related projects up and running by the COP16 UN biodiversity summit, due to be held in Cali, Colombia, from Oct. 21 to Nov. 1.

THE PROJECTS

Terrasos, a Colombia-based developer among the first movers in the market, announced the listing of 10,000 biodiversity credits – dubbed ‘Tebu’ – on Regen’s platform in May, each unit representing the conservation or restoration of 10 square meters for 30 years within the around 340,000-hectare habitat bank el Globo.

“The early demand for our Tebu credits reflects growing support for performance-based ecosystem restoration and conservation projects, with funding already making a tangible impact on Colombia’s most endangered and underfunded ecosystems,” Mariana Sarmiento, CEO of Terrasos, stated.

ERA Brazil, which developed a pilot in partnership with Instituto Homem Pantaneiro (IHP), uses its Biodiversity Stewardship Methodology to generate units, focusing on addressing habitat protection for jaguars in Brazilian ecosystems.

The project is being carried out across 50,600 ha of a private natural heritage reserve in Pantanal, Brazil, managed by IHP, with developers expecting to issue 1.4 million credits by December.

“We need another market mechanism to channel money into conservation that is not the REDD+ mechanism under the carbon markets,” Hannah Simons, founder & CEO of  ERA Brazil, said.

“We are offering this new alternative where biodiversity stewardship is at the core and can be easily applied by Indigenous Peoples and local communities, who are protecting umbrella-species habitat.”

As for the pilot developed by Fundacion Pachamama, it has been designed to support Indigenous-led forest stewardship and jaguar habitat protection over a 10,000-ha area in the Ecuadorian jungle.

According to the figures disclosed by Regen, the project has so far generated over 76,000 credits, around 830 more than initially expected – all of those already pre-sold.

During the pre-sale launch event in March, Fundacion Pachamama and Regen told Carbon Pulse attendees pre-purchased $16,000 worth of credits, with another $27,500 committed by Apr. 15, totalling approximately two-thirds of the initial units available.

By Giada Ferraglioni – giada@carbon-pulse.com

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